Future Media

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   Future Media forays into TV ad network (ET)

FUTURE Media, a subsidiary of the Future Group, has kicked off Future TV, its first big foray into in-store advertising venture. The company will roll out 1,000 screens in over 35 Future Group stores in the top six metros, before scaling it up to 10,000 across the country. Future TV will become the first branded out-of-home (OOH) TV network for advertising in retail outlets and has already signed on five-six advertisers. The potential footfalls that all these stores combined get could exceed 2 million people a week. 
   According to Partho Dasgupta, CEO, Future Media, “When you get people to notice your brand or product in the store, the intent to buy will always be much higher.” The total investment for Future TV alone is likely to exceed Rs 10 crore, but Mr Dasgupta declined to comment on the exact figure. The typical ad-spot in a retail point of purchase (POP) TV will be no longer than 10 seconds and a few advertisers are already looking at separate content for POP TV. Future Media is also sourcing content from third party developers and the split between content and ads is likely to 40:60. 
   According to Maureen Johnson, CEO, The Store, WPP’s global retail practice, 99% of the buying decisions for a few categories tend to be made at the store itself. Future Media itself will be privy to a lot of consumption and buying behaviour from various Future Group stores. Mr Dasgupta added, “Going forward, the advertising at the point-of-purchase will be split evenly between the TV and the other POP displays like danglers.” 
   The technology architecture has been done by Konzern Infotech, while the software was developed by an Australian firm, Ryarc Media Systems. As a result, depending on the location of the store and footfalls at the store, the company can tweak the content on every individual screen from a central location. Future Media has already signed on the spaces for all properties of the Future Group for a royalty and has also entered into agreements with other mall owners and retailers. 
   Globally OOH TV has been a big success for pointof-purchase advertising. Focus Media, a Chinese OOH company started in 2003 is a Nasdaq-listed company which today has a market capitalisation of over $3 billion, with more than 3,00,000 screens all over China, focusing purely on lifts, malls and restaurants. Future Media itself has sold 10% of its equity to WPP, and is also in talks with other investors to raise more money. 